Posts with tag Flock

Filed under: Web services, Open Source, Social Software, Browsers

MySpace, Flock and Vidoop release OpenID for Flock plugin

by Christina Warren Dec 2nd 2008

OpenID is a really great concept. The ability to use a single digital identity across the web and avoid having to sign up for yet another user account is a real productivity boon. More and more high profile sites and services are adopting OpenID, but the project still hasn't gained the traction that many of us think it deserves. This is partially because it still isn't easy to use OpenID -- or even find out if a site supports OpenID -- on all services. MySpace, Flock and Vidoop think they've come across a solution: let the browser handle it.

Back in June, MySpace announced support for OpenID and also became an OpenID provider. In order to help users more easily manage their online identity across other sites and services, MySpace teamed up with Flock and Vidoop to create OpenID for Flock, available today at https://extensions.flock.com. OpenID for Flock is an open source plugin, part of the larger Identity in the Browser (IDIB) project which is focused on having the browser, not the user handle, authenticate and mange multiple user identities.

I had the chance to demo the plugin yesterday and it is pretty cool. Essentially, once installed an OpenID icon appears on the right of Flock's chrome bar. The extension scans a page for OpenID compatibility, and if a site supports OpenID, the icon starts to glow. You can then automatically choose to populate the OpenID fields with your designated OpenID URL or associate that site with a specific OpenID account. You can manage all of your OpenIDs, choose what sites to associate certain profiles with and view the login history and OpenID-to-site-relationship with each site.

Tags: extension, flock, myspace, openid, plugin, vidoop

Filed under: Internet, Freeware, Browsers

Flock 2 is here, continues to underwhelm

by Lee Mathews Oct 15th 2008

"Get ready to meet your favorite browser! " Flock 2 tells me at the end of its installation process. Ok Flock, I'm ready. Blow me away!

Sadly, I'm immediately greeted by a cheesey stick figure flash intro to the new features. What the hell am I getting myself into?

As far as basic browsing goes it performs as well as Firefox, which makes sense since it's pretty much Firefox that someone someone attacked with a Bedazzler. Despite the extra baggage, Acidtests.org scored it the same as my Firefox 3.0.3 install, and I didn't really notice any difference in my everyday browsing.

What do all the extras gain me, though?

Tags: browser, browsers, flock, flock2

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Social Software, Browsers

Flock 2 beta 2 makes Firefox 3 more social

by Brad Linder Jul 18th 2008

Flock has released a second public beta of Flock 2, a web browser based on Firefox 3. What sets Flock apart from Firefox is the integration with a ton of social networking services including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Digg, del.icio.us, YouTube, PhotoBucket, and more. There's a blog editor for updating your web site from the browser, and a media bar for viewing images and videos shared by your friends without navigating away from your current web page.

Flock has always been based on Firefox, but what sets Flock 2 beta apart from Flock 1.x is that the beta version is built on Firefox 3. That means you get a redesigned location bar, a new bookmark manager, and a new rendering engine that helps most web pages load faster.

The Flock team has addressed over 175 bugs that were found in the first beta of Flock 2. Aside from bug fixes, there aren't many new features in Flock 2 beta 2. But the browser is based on Firefox 3.01, which means it also includes some important security updates. So if you're using Flock 2 beta 1, we'd recommend upgrading.

[via Mozilla Links]

Tags: firefox-3, firefox-3.01, flock, flock-2, flock-2-beta-2

Filed under: Web services, Microsoft, Mozilla, Social Software, web 2.0, Browsers

Firefox? Who's that? Opera says 4.7 million have downloaded version 9.5

by Drew Olanoff Jun 17th 2008

Are the oldschool browser wars starting up again? It sure seems like it.

Flock has a preview of their version 2 out, Firefox launched version 3 today, and Opera launched version 9.5 on June 12th.

Who's missing from this uber release party? Oh, that would be Microsoft's Internet Explorer...the browser with the #1 market share. After their less than stellar (and way less than standards compliant) version 7, Microsoft better come up with some EPIC for Internet Explorer 8.

Opera as you know is focused on security, speed, and mobile.

The sometimes over the top Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner stressed that Opera 9.5's most innovative and most important feature is the cross-link between your desktop and mobile devices. A feature that other browsers haven't even bothered to start playing with yet.

Will Opera's mobile first, desktop second strategy work? We shall see.

4.7 million downloads in 5 days is impressive, but can Firefox surpass that in a single day? Not if they can't keep their own site online.

Stay tuned!

Tags: browsers, firefox, flock, internet explorer, InternetExplorer, microsoft, mozilla, opera

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, Beta

Flock 2.0 beta is out: Social browser built on Firefox 3

by Brad Linder Jun 16th 2008

If you spend a lot of time using social web sites like Facebook, Pownce, Digg, Flickr Twitter, YouTube, or del.icio.us, you've probably heard of Flock, a web browser with integrated tools for interacting with those services and many others. The browser is built on Mozilla's Firefox, so it can render any web page that works in Firefox. But it also makes it easy to share links, photos, and videos or even write blog posts.

But there's one problem. Up until now Flock was based on Firefox 2 and couldn't take advantage of the speed improvements featured in Firefox 3. With Firefox 3 set to launch out of beta/release candidate limbo tomorrow, the Flock team has released the first beta version of Flock 2.0 which uses Firefox 3 as it's base.

What does that mean for users?

Uses the Gecko 1.9 rendering engine for faster page rendering
Improved support for web applications like Gmail and Zoho Office
Reduced memory footprint
Security enhancements
Improved password manager that takes up less memory
Uses the Firefox 3 "awesome bar" which auto-completes URLs based on your history and favories
New favorites manager
New download manager

For the most part you won't see a lot of cosmetic changes in Flock 2.0 It looks a lot like Flock 1.2 under the hood. But it's worth checking out for the performance enhancements. Keep in mind, this is still beta software though, and if you're lucky you might find a few bugs worth reporting.

Tags: firefox-3, flock, flock 2.0, flock-2.0, flock-2.0-beta, Flock2.0

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, web 2.0

Flock version 1.2 Flies the coop

by Drew Olanoff Jun 3rd 2008

Flock, the "Social Web Browser" built on the same Mozilla engine as Firefox, has launched the latest stable version, 1.2. The beta has been available for a while now.

In this version, Digg, Pownce, and AOL Mail integration. Digg and Pownce makes sense, but the AOL mail one didn't really excite us all that much.

It seems like Flock is stockpiling partners and features though and are putting together a very nice user experience "out of the box" that other browsers can't offer.

Firefox is perfect for the ubergeek that wants to install his or her own extensions, but for someone like our mothers or aunts who just want to try out this new fangled web thing, Flock is the answer.

Plus, the browser's blog editor is still the killerest app out there for any browser.

The knock on Flock has been stability which we haven't seen issues with on Windows or Mac, but the loadtime for first startup is a known issue that they're working on.

They recently won a Webby award for "Best in Social Networking" which is actually quite impressive considering that they were up against Facebook.

Go give Flock a shot and let us know what you think.

Do you want your web browsing experience to be social?

Tags: aol, browser, digg, flock, pownce, social

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Mozilla, Freeware

Backup your Firefox, Flock, or Thunderbird profiles with MozBackup 1.4.8

by Brad Linder May 20th 2008

Last time we checked in on Firefox backup utility MozBackup, the developer had just added support for Firefox 3 beta. Apparently it's been a busy half year over at MozBackup HQ, because this week MozBackup 1.4.8 was released, with the following new features:

Create automatic backups via command line
New Installer
Supports backup of unknown files from user profiles
Backup profiles and settings for: Firefox 2/3, Flock, SeaMonkey, Netscape Navigator 9.0, Netscape Messenger 9.0, Thunderbird, Spicebird, Firefox Portable, and Thunderbird Portable

If you're just looking or a quick way to backup your Firefox extensions, bookmarks, and other settings, you can always check out the FEBE and CLEO Firefox add-ons. But MozBackup looks like a nice all-in-on tool if you have several Mozilla-based programs that you want to backup.

MozBackup is available for Windows 98 through Vista.

[via CyberNet]

Tags: backup, firefox, flock, mozbackup, netscape, seamonkey, spicebird, thunderbird

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Social Software, Beta

Flock social web browser adds Digg, Pownce, and AOL Mail support

by Brad Linder May 14th 2008

Flock, the social web browser built from Firefox code keeps getting more social. Flock 1.2 beta adds Digg, Pownce, and AOL Mail integration. Once you login to Digg for the first time from the Flock browser, you'll have the option of opening up a Digg sidebar which shows you all of your Digg contacts and their recent activity. You can also click a button in the sidebar to submit any page you're currently visiting to Digg.

Micro-blogging service Pownce has also been added to the sidebar. If you have a Pownce account you can keep up with your contacts without opening a separate web page. Previous versions of Flock already supported Twitter.

Finally, the latest beta adds support for AOL Mail notifications. This isn't so much a social feature as an essential feature if you happen to use AOL as your primary web mail account. Flock already supported Yahoo! Mail and Gmail. We're not sure why AOL wasn't already in there, or why Windows Live Hotmail still isn't supported.

Like Firefox, Flock is cross-platform. There are versions of Flock 1.2 beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

[via CyberNet]

Tags: flock, flock-1.2-beta, social, web-browser

Filed under: Internet, Social Software

Yoono browser plugin makes Firefox more like Flock

by Brad Linder May 6th 2008

Like the idea of having a web browser with Twitter, Facebook, and instant messenger integration, but don't want to install a whole new browser to get those features? Yoono is a browser plugin that makes Firefox behave a bit more like Flock, the social web browser built from the same Mozilla code. But instead of downloading and installing a whole new browser, all you need to do to start using Yoono is install a 2MB Firefox add-on. An Internet Explorer version is in the works.

So what exactly does Yoono do? It adds a sidebar to Firefox that gives you quick access to your instant messenger, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Piczo, and Friendfeed contacts. You can send messages, update your social feeds, or just see what all of your friends are up to from within Firefox. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. You can also leave notes about the web sites you're visiting, rate pages, and share your bookmarks.

You can also add several widgets to your sidebar that will let you view web sites or pictures related to the page you're currently viewing. There's also a YouTube widget that will show you related videos, the day's top rated videos, or videos from your contacts.

Yoono is in private beta, but we've got 200 invites to give away to Download Squad readers on a first come, first served basis. Please don't leave comments asking us for invites, just follow the link after the jump.

Tags: add-on, firefox, flock, plugin, social, yoono

Filed under: Internet, E-mail, Social Software, Beta

Flock 1.1 beta will add web Email, Picasa and more to your web browser

by Brad Linder Jan 17th 2008

Social web browser Flock is planning to launch 3 major new features in about two weeks. Like its predecessors, Flock 1.1 beta is built on Firefox code but it has a ton of features that make it easier to keep in touch with your social networking services like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube.

Flock 1.1 adds:

Web Mail Integration - Not only can you easily check your Gmail and Yahoo! Mail with the click of a button in the newest version of Flock, but you can also share web pages, images, and articles just by clicking the email icon in the URL bar.
Friend Activity - Flock now aggregates your friends' activity from across all supported social networking services and displays it in chronological order. This could be the easiest way ever to find out which friends have updated their profiles, sent out tweets, or uploaded new media or blog posts.
Picasa Integration - Flock has added support for Picasa Web Albums, allowing you to upload images from Flock, share images via email, or browse through images using the media bar. You can also send images to friends just by dragging an image from your media bar to a Facebook, Twitter, or other contact in the People Sidebar.

We got a chance to play with an early version of Flock 1.1 and we were pretty impressed with how well the new social features are integrated into the web browser. The Friend Activity screen and web mail checker don't check for updates quite as often as we'd like, but hopefully the Flock team will provide users with the ability to customize how frequently the browser checks for new email and friend activity in the future.

Flock is available as a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The new beta version should be out before the end of January.

Tags: facebook, firefox, flock, friend-activity, picasa, twitter

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0

Flock 1.0.3: Even wallflowers like social web browsers

by Kristin Shoemaker Dec 13th 2007

Flock, the social web browser, recently passed its milestone 1.0 release. If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Why aren't more people using Flock?

More importantly, why are we?

It's a good question. Strip Flock down and what you've got is a Firefox clone. You can do everything with Firefox that you can do with Flock, if you're inclined to add extension after extension. But when all is said and done, Flock is so much more than the sum of its parts.

Tags: Browsers, Flock, Social networking, SocialNetworking, web 2.0, Web2.0

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Social Software, Beta

Flock 1.0 beta: a social web browser

by Brad Linder Oct 19th 2007

We have to admit, we've been a bit skeptical about Flock in the past. It's a web browser built on Firefox code with a whole bunch of social networking features. Because you know, you can't use Firefox to access social networking/bookmarking sites.

But something funny happened when we downloaded and installed the new Flock 1.0 beta that was released today: We liked it. The browser includes a blog editing client, a "web clipboard" that lets you drag and drop images, text and URLs into your sidebar for handy access on other sites, and a media bar for finding YouTube and other videos.

The coolest stuff happens in the sidebar. Flock will automatically detect when you login to a social networking site like Flickr and pop up a Flickr-specific sidebar that shows you a list of contacts and their current status. Click on your contact and their page will pop up in the main window. Click on the media tab under their name and a new bar pops up at the top of your window with all of their recently uploaded images and videos.

There's also a nifty "my world" tab that shows you all of your most recently viewed bookmarks and RSS feeds. Flock is a bit of a memory hog compared with Firefox, but if you've got enough RAM, Flock really does look like a great tool for anyone who spends half of their day on Facebook, YouTube, and other social sites. Keep in mind, this is still a public beta. No final release date for Flock 1.0 has been set yet.

Tags: firefox, flock, social-browser

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Open Source, Browser Tips, Social Software

Flock 0.9 takes off tomorrow

by Dolores Parker Jul 9th 2007

Flock, the Mozilla based web browser still under development in private beta, is getting a nice overhaul with its 0.9 release tomorrow. If you're not familiar with Flock, it was released in 2005 with much anticipation and hype as the social network browser. Flock was created to integrate various social networks into one browser platform so you could conceivably post items to your blog, update your Facebook page, upload to Flickr and all the while stream YouTube videos.

It didn't live up to its hype for various reasons and some would argue, Firefox accomplishes all these social network tasks with their never ending inventory of useful add-ons.

However, the blogosphere's consensus is Flock 0.9 is a bird of a different feather (no more bird references, we swear) and is quite positive about Flock's new makeover. Here are some nifty features:

My World: Flock tells you when your friends have new photos and videos and when you have new feeds. My World gives quick access to your recently visited favorite sites as well.

Account Detection: Informs you when there are available feeds and media streams on a page and when your account log-in can be configured with Flock.

Video Support: Find YouTube and Truveo videos with the Media Minibar.

Online Favorites: Easily post your favorites to del.icio.us and ma.gnolia.

Drag'n'Drop: Drag and drop photos and images from the Web Clipboard to webmail, comments, blogs, etc.

BlogEditor: Added Blogger and LiveJournal support. Also, now you can preview what your blog post will look like before pushing 'Publish.' Tags are now enabled and have included Technorati, Livejournal and Blogger-specific tags.

Photo Uploader: Edit options for a specific photo or the whole batch; easily set photo to commonly selected sizes

Flock has these media apps covered:

Blogging: Blogger, LiveJournal, Xanga, Wordpress.com, Typepad
Media: Flickr, Photobucket, YouTube
Bookmarks: del.icio.us, ma.gnolia

We realize you can't have everything, but where's Twitter? New guy on the block, Pownce? Maybe we can expect to see Flock support these additions in the 1.0 release sometime this fall.

Flock runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Thanks FF!

Tags: Blogger, bookmarks, del.icio.us, facebook, Firefox, Flickr, Flock, LiveJournal, ma.gnolia, mac, mozilla, open source, OpenSource, pownce, rss feed, RssFeed, twitter, Typepad, web browser, WebBrowser, Wordpress.com, Xanga, YouTube

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

America's Next Top Web Browser

by Jordan Running Oct 26th 2006

Seeing a bunch of lean code jockeys building the next generation of web browsers is a reality TV show I'd watch. Since that's probably not happening any time soon, I'll take the next best thing: Read/WriteWeb's Web Browser Faceoff, by Alex Iskold. Iskold reviews six of the latest crop of web bowsers: Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 7, Safari, Opera 9, Flock, and Maxthon. I highly recommend reading his entire round-up, but in case your attention span ain't what it used to be, here's what he concludes about our trusty browsers:

IE7: "Solid release, which is going to help Microsoft maintain the market leadership in the near future"
Firefox: "We think that Firefox is going to continue narrowing IE's lead, but await with interest the next major version!"
Safari: "It's a clean and simple web 1.0 browser, but needs a major feature boost in order to be a contender even on the Mac."
Opera: "We can see why fans like this browser, but a bigger future depends on spicing it up and poring in the marketing dollars."
Flock: "Great productivity browser for web 2.0"
Maxthon: "Need to apply Occam's Razor (i.e. make it simpler), but definitely could be a contender because of solid service integration."

"Even though IE and Firefox are far ahead today," Iskold concludes, "we see that other browser like Flock and Maxthon are ramping up support for the latest web 2.0 services - making themselves stand out and attracting early adopters. ... Faceoff bottom line: This round of browser competition is going to be at least as interesting as the Netscape vs. IE ten years ago. And hopefully less one-sided!" Hear, hear!

Tags: faceoff, firefox, firefox 2, Firefox2, flock, ie7, internet explorer, InternetExplorer, maxthon, opera, opera 9, review, roundup, safari, web, web 2.0, web browser, Web2.0, web20, WebBrowser

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Social Software

Flock CEO flies away

by Chris Gilmer Sep 14th 2006

The CEO of Flock, the hyped social browser that some say didn't really live up to its hype, has just left the company Wednesday to build another company. The move by Bart Decrem is being treated like it was a planed move. Bessemer Venture Partners has stated that this development has been anticipated since the day the company was started. Flock launched at the beginning of August, with a ton of hype, but most users seemed to be unsatisfied with the social browser, and didn't shake up the browser world as was intended. It should be interesting to watch how this shakes up the company. This could be a move that get a bunch of extra PR, and expand the user base.

I had tried out this browser shortly after it was launched, and preferred to stick with my beloved Firefox. Does anyone actually use Flock as their default browser?

[Via Mashable]

Tags: bart decrem, BartDecrem, bessemer venture, BessemerVenture, browser, ceo, flock, social browser, SocialBrowser

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn U After spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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